Dear Friends in Christ—
My great joy this week gets to be your great joy this coming Sunday: welcoming Samantha Scheff, our new music director!
It has been a delight this week to get to know Sam better. I hope you, too, will get to know her on Sunday and in the weeks to come. She is smart, grounded, open-minded, and talented.
But what gives me joy is not only Sam as a person. It is also what she represents: the commitment to music, worship, and beauty at Grace Church.
The search for a new music director showed me very clearly the commitment this community has to its music program and its liturgy. The search committee (ably headed by Stephanie Reed and including Alison Campbell, Cindy MacIntyre, Erica McFarquhar, and Robby Schrum) was clear about the church’s role in supporting the arts. The committee talked about Grace as a place where musicians can grow and thrive.
In this season when so many of us are weary, our worship refreshes us. The experience of beauty—not only music, but in all parts of the liturgy—heals our hearts.
I have come to believe that beauty is not a luxury. It is a necessity for the abundant life Jesus promises us. I am reminded of the words of Rose Schneiderman, a labor leader in the early 1900s: “The worker must have bread, but she must have roses, too.”
Music is one of the roses of life. This week, I am celebrating all of the moments of beauty that show us a glimpse of the wonder God has prepared for us. I hope you can, too.
Yours in Christ,
Anne+